Crimping involves the production of a non-detachable electrical and mechanical connection (subsequently referred to as “crimp connection”) by means of plastic deformation between a conductor and a crimp contact. Devices and methods for assembling electric cables in which the cables are stripped and then in a crimping press a crimp contact is produced on the stripped conductor end of the cable are well-known and have been in use for a long time. In industrial production, it is customary during the crimping process to process contact strips with crimp contacts strung together, wherein the contact strips are wound on a supply roll. Often, the contact strip is provided with a carrier strip which consists, for example, of paper which separates when wound the individual layers of contact strips with the crimp contacts.
The patent document EP 1 341 269 A1 disclosed a crimping press station that is designed as a rotary table press. The crimping press station has a crimping press and a rotating disc-shaped tool table on which three tool tables have been arranged. Each tool table has been provided with a supply roll of crimp contacts and a winder for receiving the carrier strips removed from the contact strips. With this device, it is possible to process different crimp contacts. The device also offers the possibility of operating successively different contact types with short downtimes. However, the device is complex and comparatively expensive.
The patent document DE 20 2006 020927 U1 shows a further device for producing a crimp connection. The device comprises a crimping press station which can be connected with a contact supply unit, which has a supply roll for the contact strip with the crimp contacts, and a paper web winder. Several contact supply units can be stored in a separate storage rack. The individual contact supply units have to be removed from the storage rack and inserted in the crimping press station. The exchange process or process of retooling the machine with different crimp contacts is difficult and requires quite some skills on the part of the operator of the machine. Furthermore, such processes result in extensive downtimes which have a negative effect on productivity.
A device of the above-mentioned type has been disclosed in the patent document U.S. Pat. No. 8,176,626 B2. The device comprises a supply unit for storing and supplying the crimp contacts to a crimping press station which can be moved simply by pushing or pulling transport wheels. The mobile supply unit has vertical walls spaced apart from one another. A supply roll and a paper winder are respectively swivel-mounted between said walls. Experience has shown that with regard to efficiency and productivity the device does not meet higher standards. For example, extensive downtimes can occur when a supply roll with the crimp contacts becomes empty. In this case, the old or empty supply roll has to be removed and a new or full supply roll has to be installed. The contact strip has to be threaded again. The previously wound carrier strip paper has to be removed and the paper web of the new supply roll is fixed on a new winder. Changing the supply roll requires also removing the axis. A further disadvantage involves the fact that it is very difficult to access the winder for the carrier strip.